Ennedi & Rayden common work Candidacy - rock, water, terrains and more

[Ennedi]

OK, we start uploading terrain-related mods made by me and Silvio (Rayden). Every mod has it's own main creator, but our cooperation is close and effective so we decided to upload this work together under the same name.

Here is the first candidacy: two sets of sky backgrounds
- Set 1: Day sky (7 versions)
- Set 2: Night sky (4 versions).

Examples:









More (and bigger) images in the last Shosaloza update I made today.
Now I'll send Fileden links to Barby. Both sets (Day and Night) comes in two versions: 1024x1024 and 512x512 textures. the smaller ones are the minimum to achieve the satisfactory quality. But I'd like to ask scrutineers to check both sizes and decide if larger textures are necessary. My own tests showed that night textures should be larger - when I used 512x512 size, I didn't see the difference between more and less bright stars. But please check it. Maybe at least some of the day textures can be released in the smaller version?
I must say I didn't notice any increasing of the loading time. I noticed a short break when switched from one zoom to another only when I used 4096x4096 textures 

I would like also to ask for suggestions: Do you like all textures? Maybe some of them is unnecessary? Or maybe somebody wants to request another texture - now there is a chance to do it.

Edit: after a talk with Barby I decided to make fileden links to my mods here - some of them are big and Barby could have problems with sending them to scrutineers

http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/3/6/2352238/ENN_SkyBackgrounds_DaySet512.zip
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/3/6/2352238/ENN_SkyBackgrounds_DaySet1024.zip
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/3/6/2352238/ENN_SkyBackgrounds_NightSet512.zip
http://www.fileden.com/files/2009/3/6/2352238/ENN_SkyBackgrounds_NightSet1024.zip

Adam

[SimNation]

That Night photo looks Fantastic!!! Its excatly what I was looking to use. Thank you so much

[sithlrd98]

First , let me say these are fantastic! You have given so many choices , that honestly...I don't know which one I like best! I only tried 2 day backgrounds and 1 night so far. I don't notice much difference between the 512 and the 1024 , but I also did not move around nor did I zoom much as I just wanted to see a specific shot. Although your pics look far superior , (gotta be the rock mods and other goodies you've got all to your self  ) I am quite pleased!
I really didn't think that this would be the response given to someone who hasn't made many posts in your thread!









I did take some night sky pics for both sizes, but they don't seem to show up that well....

Awesome job!

Jayson

[Pat]

Adam I can't soooooooooooo wait to get home tonight to play and tax out my new machine with your new mods!!!!  Cause daaaaaaaaaaaaaaang Adam, what Jayson just showed mmmm mmmm mmmmmmmmm god they are looking good sir!!!

[Ennedi]

Thank you Pat for nice words! I hope these backgrounds will help you to make next beautiful landscapes 

Jayson, thanks very much for testing! I'm glad you like these textures.
As for night backgrounds, I can see stars quite clearly on my monitor (I didn't edit my pictures), but maybe they can show different for another players depending on game and monitor graphic settings. Do you think I should make stars brighter?

Adam

[sithlrd98]

It probably is my setup...ever since I made the upgrade to my new computer , the game doesn't seem to display night correctly.I even installed x64 XP , thinking Vista was the problem. Both the integrated graphics and my 8600GT cause a few strange issues like I get a lot of strange artifacting , especially with Gizmos Day-Night mod.That being said, I don't go into night mode that often  .  In-game , both versions (512,1024) did display stars , but I also used the second night backgrounds for both sizes. I did take pics at the same time as the previous....

                                           1024



                                             512





As I said , I'm not sure if you will have issues seeing these , as I did shrink them down from 1440x900 to 800x500 , but I can see them in-game.

Jayson

[Ennedi]

Thank you Jayson for an explanation! Sad to hear about your problems, I'm working on x64 XP with SP3, NVidia GE Force 7900 GS and I don't have any problems. Anyway, there is more and more time from the game release date and it will be more and more difficult to run it on new machines and new graphic cards. I haven't any knowledge about it, it would be good if somebody more experienced tell something about it. Maybe the new Windows 7 will be better?
Anyway, good to hear you see stars in the game. They can be seen on your pics too if we look very close  Of course resizing photos decreased their quality a bit.
It is important for me, I didn't want to make stars bigger and brighter, it would look unnatural.

Adam

[blade2k5]

I really like the look of your HD rock mods, but unfortunately, my video card doesn't allow me to play in hardware mode [games crashes to desktop] so I can't use these even though I dl'd them and will keep them in case I get a new video card.  Anyways, just wanted to let you know I think you gentlemen did an outstanding job on these.  Definitely deserves an 

[Ennedi]

I really like the look of your HD rock mods, but unfortunately, my video card doesn't allow me to play in hardware mode [games crashes to desktop] so I can't use these even though I dl'd them and will keep them in case I get a new video card.  Anyways, just wanted to let you know I think you gentlemen did an outstanding job on these.  Definitely deserves an 

Thank you Troy! If you will choose a new video card - probably Nvidia ones are the most friendly for SC4. I hace Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS and I haven't any graphic problems both with HD textures and other stuff. I think newer Nvidia cards are even better for us, I'm going to use one of them when I will order a new machine in autumn 

Adam

Edit: Unfortunately both Chris, Silvio and me are very busy in RL now, but we will come back with some new stuff soon 

[blade2k5]

Thank you Troy! If you will choose a new video card - probably Nvidia ones are the most friendly for SC4. I hace Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS and I haven't any graphic problems both with HD textures and other stuff. I think newer Nvidia cards are even better for us, I'm going to use one of them when I will order a new machine in autumn 

Right now, that's far off in the future as I'm unemployed except for the odd jobs I do on Saturdays for roughly $70/week.  I don't expect I'll find a job anytime soon, not with my State's unemployment rate nearing the 10% mark.  The wife and I earn just enough to pay the bills and put gas in the car.
Adam

Edit: Unfortunately both Chris, Silvio and me are very busy in RL now, but we will come back with some new stuff soon